Patient was educated regarding precautions to be exercised for using biguanides as follows:
- Keeping a track of frequency of episodes of low blood sugars, despite eating regularly, can help your physician revise your dose on the medication.
- Also, notify your doctor, if the blood sugar continues to be high, despite taking the medication as recommended, so that, your medication dose could be revised.
- Observe compliance with any regular lab work ordered, such as, HbA1c. As these drugs are eliminated in the urine, renal function panel could be ordered periodically.
- If a dose is missed, it should be taken at the earliest notice of noncompliance, if it is within 2 hours of the scheduled missed dose time. Report the noncompliance to your physician. If it is time for the next dose, the missed dose can be skipped. Compensating for the missed dose by taking an extra dose can pose serious risk for an episode of extremely low blood sugars, thus precipitating an emergency.
